the draught or pull of the horses." The phrase "a
prince's _pelf_" is reprobated, because _pelf_ means properly "the
scraps or shreds of taylors and of skinners." He gives strict rules for
the decorous behaviour of ambassadors and all who address themselves to
princes, being himself a courtier, and having probably exercised some
diplomatic function. "I have seen," says he, "foreign ambassadors in the
queen's presence laugh so dissolutely at some rare pastime or sport that
hath been made there, that nothing in the world could have worse becomen
them." With respect to men in other stations of life he is pleased to
say, it is decent for a priest "to be sober and sad;" "a judge to be
incorrupted, solitary, and unacquainted with courtiers or courtly
entertainments... without plait or wrinkle, sour in look and churlish in
speech; contrariwise a courtly gentleman to be lofty and curious in
countenance, yet sometimes a creeper and a curry favell with his
superiors." "And in a prince it is decent to go slowly and to march with
leisure, and with a certain grandity rather than gravity; as our
sovereign lady and mistress, the very image of majesty and magnificence,
is accustomed to do generally, unless it be when she walketh apace for
her pleasure, or to catch her a heat in the cold mornings. Nevertheless
it is not so decent in a meaner person, as I have discerned in some
counterfeit ladies of the country, which use it much to their own
derision. This comeliness was wanting in queen Mary, _otherwise a very
good and honorable princess_. And was some blemish to the emperor
Ferdinando, a most noble-minded man, yet so careless and forgetful of
himself in that behalf, as I have seen him run up a pair of stairs so
swift and nimble a pace, as almost had not become a very mean man, who
had not gone in some hasty business."

Respecting the poets mentioned by Puttenham whose names have not
already occurred in the present work, it may be observed, that excepting
a few lines quoted by this critic, there is nothing remaining of sir
Edward Dyer's, except, which is highly probable, he is to be reckoned
among the anonymous contributors to the popular collections of that day.
Of Gascoigne, on the contrary, enough is left to exhaust the patience of
any modern reader. In his youth, neglecting the study of the law for
poetry and pleasure, he poured forth an abundance of amatory pieces;
some of them sonnets closely imitating the Italian ones in style a